The colorants, which are considered the least indispensable additives, are used mainly to normalise the colour of a foodstuff or drink.
However, this tendency has changed with the appearance of the agro-food market of natural food substitutes, increasing its application to the decoration of prepared proteins, to make them more attractive and similar to the original product.
Traditionally, vegetable extracts have been used as colorants of natural origin .beta.-carotenes, beetroot juice, fruit juices . . . ) and synthetic colorants, which are subject to very extensive toxicological studies.
Within this latter class of colorants, there are very few black coloured ones. More exactly, the only ones that are admitted for use in the European Union are those of vegetal carbon itself, Brilliant Negro BN and Black 7984, these last two being subject to strong restrictions both regarding their use (in the case of Black 7984 it can only be used with certain types of product) and in the daily admitted dose (D.A.D.) of less that 0.75 mg/Kg of bodyweight for Brilliant Negro BN that, furthermore, cannot be used in foods that may be heated during their preparation.
On the other hand the use of the secretary glands of the cephalopod (inks) in the whole of the North of Spain is widely known, being extensively used in the nouveau cuisine or miniature cooking, that use large quantities of "small cuttlefish ink".
However, the natural product is not stable and is quickly degraded making its use not a viable option as an industrial food colouring. This degradation is due mainly to the high microbiological load that the natural product contains and the enzymatic/toxic activity derived from the repellent nature of the cephalopod ink.
On the other hand black colorants of animal origin have not been used in general in the agro-food industry due to the fact that the consumption of food of this colour is limited to the northern half of Spain, the Levantine coast (black rice) and some Asian countries.
The applicant is unaware of the existence of black food colorant, obtained from cephalopod ink by means of a double stabilisation process with the microbiological and chemical stages.